A famous linguist was giving a lecture and happened to mention the following item:
“In some languages, a double negative reinforces the negative aspect of the statement*; in others, a double negative results in a positive statement. There are, however, no cases in which a double positive yields a negative.”To which a wiseacre in the back row said, “Yeah, yeah.”
A famous linguist was giving a lecture and happened to mention the following item:
“In some languages, a double negative reinforces the negative aspect of the statement*; in others, a double negative results in a positive statement. There are, however, no cases in which a double positive yields a negative.”To which a wiseacre in the back row said, “Yeah, yeah.”